Shell Australia spokesman Paul Zennaro said the problems at the Shell refinery in Geelong were being addressed.

"We're working to reinstate production by this weekend. Shell employees are doing everything they can," he said.

Earlier

SERVICE stations across Bendigo were almost entirely out of diesel reserves last night.

APCO service station owner Damian Carew said the shortage had created huge queues of people lining up for diesel.

He said the service stations in Kangaroo Flat and McIvor Road had been operating on limited allocation all week before the issue “came to a head” last night.

“We’ve had customers coming in saying they’d been to six or seven service stations and they’ve all been empty. It’s been a domino effect. As soon as one service station runs out, those customers try another service station.”

The shortage of diesel has been caused by issues with production at the Shell refinery in Geelong.

Customers across Victoria had been affected by problems with the supply chain, Shell Australia spokesman Paul Zennaro said.

The shortage comes as farmers around the region are in the midst of their harvest.

Leichhardt farmer Graeme Cornish said he was only able to fill up less than half the amount of diesel he had ordered.

“I can only take what we can get our hands on at the moment,” he said.

“Our diesel provider said all the distributors are in the same boat, just trying to get more supplies. There are other farmers waiting on their supplies.”

Diesel car owners across the region are stocking up on what is left of the fuel.

Castlemaine’s Trish Hall said she had tried three other service stations around Bendigo before striking it lucky at Kangaroo Flat’s APCO.

“My husband told me that there was none left in Castlemaine and all up the Calder Highway so I was trying to find one here before I went back,” she said.

“It’s not a big issue for us because we have another car, but it would be terrible if you were desperate.”

Mr Carew said the problem was only going to get worse.

“There’s obviously a limit to how much we can get from the refinery,” he said.

“I’ve been told they’ll be back online on Sunday, but even if they come back to full production at the weekend we may be waiting longer. Hopefully it’s all resolved next week.”